Study of multi-nucleon transfer reactions with light nuclei

Study of multi-nucleon transfer reactions with light nuclei G. Benzoni, D. Montanari, A. Bracco,N.Blasi, F. Camera, F.C.L. Crespi,A.Corsi,S.Leoni, B. Million, R. Nicolini, O. Wieland, A. Zalite,F.Zocca, F. Azaiez, S. Franchoo,I.Stefan, F. Ibrahim,D.Verney, S. Battacharyya,G.DeFrance,A.Navin, M. Rejmund, L. Corradi,G.deAngelis,A.Gadea,A.M.Stefanini, J.J. Valiente-Dobón,E.Farnea, S. Lunardi,P.Mason, G. Montagnoli, F. Scarlassara,S.Szilner, and G. Pollarolo Dipartimento di Fisica and INFN, Sezione di Milano, Milano, Italy. IPN Orsay, France. GANIL, Caen, France LNL, Legnaro, Italy. Universitá di Padova and INFN sezione di Padova, Padova, Italy. LNL, Legnaro, Italy RBI, Zagreb, Croatia Università di Torino, Torino, Italy Abstract. Multi-nucleon transfer reactions are useful tools to populate exotic nuclei, particularly the neutron-rich ones. In this view, two different experiments have been performed employing a stable ( 22 Ne) and a radioactive ( 24 Ne) beam, both impinging on a 208 Pb target. The first reaction has been studied using the CLARA-PRISMA-DANTE set-up at Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro (Legnaro-Italy), while the second reaction was performed at Ganil (Caen-France) employing a SPIRAL radioactive beam of 24 Ne. In this case recoils and coincident γ rays were detected with the VAMOS-EXOGAM set-up. The data show that MNT reactions can selectively populate states of different nature and, therefore, are a good tool to study nuclear structure further away from stability. Keywords: gamma-ray spectroscopy, multinucleon transfer reactions, radioactive beams PACS: 21.10.-k,25.60.-t,27.30.+t INTRODUCTION The spectroscopy of nuclei around mass 20 is particularly interesting since these nuclei are located at the boundaries of the so-called island of inversion. Important experimental information in this region has been gained using single- and double- step fragmentation [1] and light-particle transfer reactions employing radioactive beams [2, 3]. Multi-nucleon transfer (MNT) and deep-inelastic (DIC) reactions are proved to be useful tools to populate exotic nuclei, particularly the neutron-rich ones. Although these reaction mechanisms have already been extensively exploited in the past years, only recently the availability of efficient spectrometers opens up a variety of new possibilities to study the reaction mechanism itself and to investigate the spectroscopy of medium mass neutron-rich nuclei. In this view, two different experiments were performed employing 300

astable( 22 Ne) and a radioactive ( 24 Ne) beam. In this proceeding we present preliminary results from the analysis of both experiments. THE EXPERIMENTS The first reaction has been performed using an intense beam (3-4 pna) of 22 Ne at 150 MeV, from the ECR source - positive ion injector (PIAVE), impinging on an enriched 700 µg/cm 2 208 Pb target [4]. The events were measured by means of the CLARA-PRISMA-DANTE set-up. The PRISMA spectrometer [5], placed around the grazing angle for this reaction (estimated to be θ lab = 58 ), allows the identification in charge and mass of the reaction products on an event by event basis, through the reconstruction of the individual trajectories. The coupling of PRISMA to the Clover array CLARA [6] allows to detect γ rays emitted in coincidence with the recoils. The 25 Clover detectors are placed around the scattering chamber covering the angles between 98 and 170 with a photopeak efficiency of 3% for 1 MeV γ rays. The addition of DANTE [7], a multi-detector array formed by a variable number of MCP detectors, enables the kinematic reconstructionofpartofthe events that are outside the PRISMA acceptance, therefore increasing the statistics and allowing the creation of γ γ coincidence matrices. In 5 days of data taking a number of 4 10 6 good CLARA-PRISMA coincidences were collected. The second reaction, performed at Ganil (Caen-France) employed a SPIRAL radioactive beam of 24 Ne (at 190 MeV with an intensity of 1.5 10 5 pps) also impinging on athick 208 Pb target [8]. The thickness of the target (10.9 mg/cm 2 ) was chosen such as to guarantee a counting rate high enough to enable basic gamma-ray spectroscopic information to be obtained. The reaction products were detected in the focal plane of the VAMOS spectrometer [9, 10] which was positioned at the calculated grazing angle for this reaction ( 35 ). The γ rays were detected by the EXOGAM array [11, 12], consisting of 11 segmented germanium Clover detectors, 9 of which had Compton suppression shields. A total of 1.4*10 5 particle-γ coincidences were recorded in 7 days of data taking. The coupling of a spectrometer to an array of γ-rays detectors allows the study of reaction mechanism dynamics by using the structural information provided by the γ rays. In this way, information on both cross sections and angular momentum population can be deduced from such experiments. The data show that MNT reactions can selectively populate states of different nature and, therefore, are a good tool to study nuclear structure further away from stability. PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS The experiment performed in LNL is the most recent and the data analysis is still in progress. In this proceeding we only present the E- Eplot(fig. 1) showing the different nuclear species populated in the reaction. The different contours correspond to distinct elements, as indicated in the figure: the reaction populated nuclei ranging from Mg to C, 301

Low Theta Counts Counts 1680 sp 2350 ms 1680 ms 2030 sp 3330 High Theta E [kev] FIGURE 2. γ-ray spectra of 25 Ne requiring the condition that θ < 34 (panel a)) or θ > 34 (panel b)). obtained with the condition θ < 34 (labelled as Low Theta ) and panel b) θ > 34 ( High Theta ). These spectra clearly show different peaks with those present in the Low Theta spectrum absent in the High Theta cut. The condition of θ being < 34 seems to select mainly transitions from states of single particle character, while the condition θ > 34 selects states of mixed character. Moreover the doublet around 1.7 MeV also seems to be populated in different proportions by these conditions. A similar dependence of the population of single particle and collective states as a function of the recoil angle and γ multiplicity has been reported by the Surrey group using the CHICO detector coupled to GAMMASPHERE, as described in ref.[17, 18]. More quantitative results will be provided after the response function of the VAMOS spectrometer will be unfolded and its combined dependence on angle and momentum examined. CONCLUSION In this brief report, preliminary results from the first deep inelastic experiment performed using a radioactive 24 Ne beam from SPIRAL have been presented. The presented experiment has been performed with a beam intensity of approximately 1.5*10 5 pps, leading to a total of 10 4 γ-particle coincidences. The data show that, also employing radioactive beams, DIC can selectively populate states of different nature and, therefore, are a good tool to study nuclear structure further away from stability. This interesting result will be compared by a more recent experiment performed in LNL using a stable 22 Ne beam. 303

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The GANIL/SPIRAL accelerator crew for providing a particularly stable radioactive 24 Ne beam and the LNL PIAVE-ALPI operators for the delivery of a very intense 22 Ne beam are thanked. We would like to acknowledge the help and support from the local VAMOS-EXOGAM and the CLARA-PRISMA technical staff for making it possible to run very smooth experiments. This work was partially supported by the EU through the EURONS project. REFERENCES 1. M. Stanoiu et al., Phys, Rev. C69, 034312 (2004). 2. W.N. Catford et al., Eur. Phys. J. A25, S1 250 (2005). 3. A. Obertelli et al., Phys. Rev. C 74, 064305 (2006). 4. G.Benzoni et al., LNL Report 2006, pp. 39: P.Mason et al., LNL Report 2005, pp. 31. 5. LNL Report 2004, pp.136-146; A. M. Stefanini et al., Nucl. Phys. A701, 217c (2002); A. Latina et al., Nucl. Phys. A 734, E1 (2004). 6. A. Gadea et al., Eur. Phys. J. A20, 193 (2004). 7. J. J. Valiente-Dobón et al., AIP conference proceeding 853, 202 (2006); J. J. Valiente-Dobón et al.,lnl Report 2005, pp.175-176. 8. G.Benzoni et al., AIP conference proceeding 853, 49 (2006). 9. H. Savajols et al, Nucl. Phys. A 654, 1027c (1999). 10. GANIL web site http://www.ganil.fr/vamos. 11. S.L. Shepherd et al., Nucl. Inst. Methods Phys. Res. Sect.A 434, 373 (1999). 12. GANIL web site http://www.ganil.fr/exogam. 13. P. Mason et al., LNL report 2006, pp.242-243. 14. S.W. Padgett et al., Phys. Rev. C72, 064330 (2005). 15. A.Winther, Nucl. Phy. A 549, 203 (1995). 16. J.R. Terry et al., Phys. Lett. B 640, 86 (2006). 17. J.J. Valiente Dobon et al., Phys. Rev. C69, 024316 (2004). 18. P.H. Regan et al., Phys. Rev. C68, 044313 (2003). 304